Local rheumatologist Dr. Hulon Crayton has demonstrated the power of philanthropy over the decades in Bay County.

And, while he now needs a bone marrow transplant, local organizations are pulling together to encourage African Americans and other minorities to become bone marrow donors.

The local alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, in partnership with the Black Student Union at Florida State University Panama City, is calling on locals — particularly minorities — to donate bone marrow through a bone marrow drive for Crayton on Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at FSU Panama City campus in the Holley Center.

“With the type of person he is, always helping people, it would be just not right for us not to try to help him,” said Darnita Rivers, sorority president of the local alumnae chapter. “We’re optimistic and hoping that we will have hundreds of people come out. Our goal is to have as many participants as we can.”

Through the Crayton Foundation, Crayton and his wife give scholarships to minority students at FSU Panama City and Lincoln University, a historically black university in Missouri.

Organizers of the drive, which also is sponsored by Gulf Coast Medical Center, said the goal is to recruit at least 50 new bone marrow registrants to be added to the Be The Match registry and to raise $5,000.

Those goals are at the halfway mark, organizers said.

The sample to test for a match is painless. A representative from Be The Match will simply swab the cheek of the registrant. The sample will be sent off to be processed. If the registrant is a match for someone on the registry, they will be contacted and the donations process will start from that point.

Potential donors need to be healthy and between the ages of 18 and 44. Potential donors should bring an ID, though not required.

Out of about 10 million registrants at Be The Match, only 7 percent are African American. And because bone marrow is matched by DNA, Crayton would most likely need an African American donor.

And with a relatively small community of African Americans, about 12 percent, in Bay County, odds of finding a donor can be increased slightly if the community turns out in large numbers to “swab for Doc.”

“African Americans are the least likely to find a match out of all the races on the registry just due to the fact that we do not have enough African American (marrow donors),” said Jennifer Salah, a regional representative at Be The Match. “As it stands now, an African American patient has about a 66 percent chance of finding a match, where as a Caucasian has a 93 percent chance of finding a match because we have so many more Caucasians on the registry.”

Potential donors would become a part of the Be The Match registry and, in that way, increase Crayton’s chances of finding a matching donor.

In early July, Crayton, 57, who has practiced medicine since 1990 and in the area since 1998, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The doctor said he has been healthy his entire life and was “in shock” to learn he had cancer.

“To be diagnosed with leukemia when you have been healthy all your life, certainly took me by complete and total surprise,” Crayton said on Wednesday at his office, Arthritis and Infusion Center. “One day you’re on a mountain top looking down over creation, so to speak. The next thing you know you’re hit by an avalanche and you’re rolling down the hill not knowing where you’re going.”

“My health is gone,” he added. “That, by itself, was a real shock to me.”

As a result of being bed ridden and undergoing chemotherapy treatments, the self-described “workaholic” has lost about 50 pounds in muscle mass and cannot get out as much as usual, he said.

“That’s hard,” he said of his new lifestyle that requires lots of rest. “That’s not me.”

“God has done so much for me in such a short period of time. I know he’s got more for me,” he said, tearing and reflecting on two near-death experiences after being diagnosed. “I know that I know that I know that he brought me down here for a bigger purpose.”

He said practicing medicine is “a calling” and not a job.

“And I feel it everyday that I walk through these doors,” he added. “This is where God wants me to be to heal his people and touch his people in a way that nobody else can.”

The doctor said he will attend the bone marrow drive on Friday.

Crayton’s wife, Dinah Crayton, also is a member of the organization. It was her affiliation with the group that led to the idea. The sorority has a core focus on sisterhood, scholarship and service.

Helping to find a match for Crayton is in line with the organization’s mission, Rivers said.

“The emphasis on the sisterhood makes her husband our family as well,” she said. “We felt compelled to help to provide a type of potential donor.”

She added: “I’ve known him always to be a very caring man who was concerned to find help with collective groups.”